The Note

W A S H I N G T O N June 25

Page 5 of 15

"'To the people that are pushing the recall, [the White House] is saying: 'We are going to watch it but we're not involved,'' said one California GOP activist working hard to oust Davis. 'But the donors seem to get a different message. I think it's subtle in that [administration officials] communicate to the donors that they don't think it's a good idea, and that detracts.'"

Brownstein weighs all the pros and cons in the Republican debate about what's better for the president's reelection efforts in 2004 … a highly unpopular Democratic governor or a Republican governor who may have assumed that office with a very small percentage of the vote in a successful recall?

And then Mr. Brownstein floats the idea that the White House take on the recall might come down to what's good for Dr. Rice.

"Others note yet another potential complication. Some GOP strategists believe White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice may want to run for governor in 2006. A run by Rice, an African American, would greatly advance Bush's goal of presenting a more diverse face for the GOP. But a Rice candidacy would likely be precluded if another Republican wins the governorship in a recall election."

And then, of course, we will end the show with our wacky show closer.

On Slate yesterday, Timothy Noah posted a story with exclusive peeks at what was billed as the near-official-but-unready Bush-Cheney 2004 Web site. LINK

Noah reports, "Presumably by accident, somebody left a live prototype [link to picture] of President Bush's 2004 campaign site on the Web for a few hours today. (It's locked up behind a password now, so all links in this item are to snapshots Slate took earlier.) At least Chatterbox thinks it was a live prototype."

The Note is still trying to figure out how Noah and friends found out about that, and more importantly why someone didn't tell The Note sooner.

On Tuesday, The Note talked to Bush-Cheney 2004 Press Secretary Nicolle Devenish to find out what happened.

Ms. Devenish said, "It gives new meaning to the term 'sneak preview.'"

"It's not the campaign's Web site. It's a development site."

"The design is a good indicator of where we're heading."

She also said that work on the Web site did not begin until the re-election committee was officially formed.

So, let's see how we fit all that into an hour, with gobs of commercials.

Actually, to be honest, we aren't really doing a show. That was just a joke, and a device to try to get you through the summary creatively.

In fact, we do have one REAL announcement, and in the best tradition of journalism, we will slightly re-write a press release that went out from ABC News yesterday:

Lisa Todorovich, a journalist with significant experience reporting on national politics, has been named the deputy political director of ABC News, it was announced today by ABC News president David Westin, and we couldn't be happier.

Ms. Todorovich starts with us next week, and we know you readers will like her as much as we do. Not to mention R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

If you want to read all about her, here's the full release. LINK
We wish farewell and the best of luck to Elizabeth Wilner in her new job at NBC News. Here's to a great campaign season for us all.